Monday, July 5, 2010

Don't Ask Me Why

I have to admit I was somewhat disappointed learning that the next FTD release will be another book/CD combo, this one titled King Creole - the Music. Not that I have anything against the idea of FTD making so called audiovisual documentaries. It's just that this is the first one that offers nothing new music wise, as all the outtakes included have already been previously issued.

From experience the fans know that these book/CD releases tend to be expensive to say the least. And with no unreleased material, the book featuring photos from the Pål Granland collection has to be really something for me to make a grab for it. (Although I admit the photo gracing the cover is a real beauty.)

Another thing that irritates me is that the CD doesn't even include all the available material from the King Creole sessions. "Crawfish" (with complete Kitty White vocals) that could be found on Hits Like Never Before, Essential Elvis Volume 3 is missing, as is the instrumental version of "King Creole" (main title) that appeared on that very same release back in 1990.

Maybe I'm just in a bad mood because the upcoming release King Creole – The Music means that there will be no King Creole in the classic album series. In a way I already knew this. But if the CD included in the combo would have included ALL the outtakes as well as movie version that differs slightly due to overdubbing, like the drumroll on the line "he holds his guitar like a tommy gun", then maybe it could've held it's own for a classic album treatment.

While I'm at it, today's news that the FTD release following King Creole will be another vinyl LP, this time Good Times, didn't have me all excited either. Now here's for hoping the mail man soon delivers my long awaited copy of How Great Thou Art. And then there is, of course, the DVD/Blu-ray version of Elvis On Tour to look forward to!

4 comments:

I could not find your contact info. I was wondering if you would enjoy some things on our site, ElvisTribute.us, such as our Elvis songs poll, Elvis fanaticism "tests", impersonators poll, or reading other fans' stories or concert stories. Perhaps your blog readers would enjoy knowing about those too. You can contact me at the contact page of ElvisTribute.us.Maria

Hi Maria, I'm glad you enjoyed reading Elvis Today and hope you'll continue to visit it from time to time.

Also, thank you very much for mentioning your site, I think it's great! What a good idea to let fans tell their own stories about concerts, how they got into Elvis, what they think about his movies and so on. I'll be sure to add it to the Elvis links on my blog.

I think they recently said "Good Times" is going to be an out-take only version on the vinyl. Which is cool, since most record collectors already have the album. I'd like to see a 12 inch "Viva Las Vegas".

"King Creole" will be okay, it just kind of seems like they're scraping the barrel a bit lately. I wouldn't mind seeing "Essential Elvis" brought back as a series. Volume 3 was a crown jewel at the time, but some of the material has yet to be re-released.